Red Trousers. Casellina 0-0 IUE

Monday 26th November 2007, Turri, Scandicci.

[uh-oh, there have been some strange back end formatting bugs in this post, which keep reappearing. I have tried to fix them all now!]

There is a great piece of dialogue in one of my favourite Simpsons episodes: Bart walks in wearing a colourful hawaian shirt, Homer, who is becoming worried that Bart may be gay, says to Marge, "There's only two kinds of guys who wear Hawaian shirts: Gay guys and big fat party animals, and I don't think Bart's a big fat party animal." As far as I understand, there are only two kinds of guy who wear red trousers: Dutch guys and Italian guys, and I don't think Mate is either of those things. I don't really know where this is going, but Mate was definitely wearing red trousers last night. Not sure if IUE Calcio players should be seen in red trousers when they are neither Italian or Dutch men in midlife crises.

A nil-nil result is a rare thing in EUI football. My first one in two and a half seasons here. When was the last one, anybody? This was against a team who we trounced twice last year in two relatively open games. This was a less then open game, although they had a bit of an open goal in the first half, which they convenienly missed. We started with a little bit of rejigged front six, with Leo moving up front, Irial back into midfield, Dave H staying on the left where he made so much impact last week in the second half, with me switching to the right. Assistant Boss Graham, although he didn't tell me this til AFTER the match, also thought we should start with this formation, so I feel vindicated in doing it, but we never really got a chance to see how it might work, as we proceeded to gift Casellina the ball all the time, with us only having one coherent move in the whole first half, and only really looking a threat from crossed freekicks. In difficult foggy conditions, they played much more effectively than us, although to say they played well would be pushing it and not emphasising enough the extent to which we gifted them the initiative. We dwelled on the ball too long, played inaccurate passes and dropped too deep in midfield. We lloked laboured as we chased the ball all half and gave it away as soon as we got it. There is no point playing a high defensive line (which was exceptional last night, and our saviour in the first half), if our midfield plays only five yards in front of it. We could get the ball moving and repeatedly gave it to them who would just punt it forward and three times had good chances without really ever stringing a move together. They bypassed the midfield a lot when they had the ball and dominated it when we had it, with three central midfielders.

Lucky to be level at half time, Mate came on at right back, Dave moved to seconda punta and Leo to right wing, with me going to left wing in an attempt to have 1. someone who would come short and collect the ball from a static midfield, and 2. keep the midfield more compact and narrow in an attempt to have 4 against their 3 with more space for our full backs to overlap. We played relatively well for 20 minutes, although failed to really create any good chances, but played in their half for long spells with them doing all the running. Luis started playing some incisive passes and Dave H looked sharp. Mate and Mark made good use of the extra space that our more compact midfield shape gave them. Dave Horan picked up and ankle injury and Norberto came on. We failed to capitalise on our better possession and territorial domination, with the game simply being more comfortable rather than particularly enthralling. We had a shakey last few minutes as confusion reigned at the back, and they had a relatively good chance but put a tame effort straight at Charles. Arnout came in, followed by Tijl and Jonny, although the game was looking destined for a draw at this point.

The first half was the worst we have played for a long, long time, far worse than any game this season. The second half was competent at best. With the chances they had, including one great one, and how we had to dig in to secure the draw, we definitely have to look at this as a point won on the night rather than two dropped, unlike every other point we have dropped this season. Sometimes the parachute just doesn't open. Red trousers though...

Team: Charles - Dom (Mate), Andrew, Dave M, Mark - Luke (Tijl), Irial, Luis, Dave H (Nobby) - Leo (Arnout), Nate (Jonny)